A6 The BulleTin • Tuesday, april 27, 2021
EDITORIALS & OPINIONS
AN INDEPENDENT NEWSPAPER
Heidi Wright
Gerry O’Brien
Richard Coe
Publisher
Editor
Editorial Page Editor
Save a restaurant,
a job and an artist
Y
our favorite restaurant or bar was likely already
struggling to survive during the pandemic. On Friday, it
could get hit again.
Gov. Kate Brown is scheduled to
announce Tuesday whether or not
she will shut down indoor dining in
Crook and Deschutes counties and
other counties across the state as
COVID infections climb.
Restaurants and bars aren’t the
only businesses that may feel the re-
strictions. Gyms and movie theaters
would, too. They are all in a battle to
survive.
Who can make a difference? You.
Visit them this week. Order take-
out or delivery. And if the shutdown
order hits, keep ordering. Stay away
and a business that has survived
this long may go away. Don’t let that
happen.
Their precarious financial po-
sition is not their fault. Yes, some
businesses flouted the rules about
distancing and masks. Most did not.
Most made every effort to comply.
If you are frustrated or just plain
tired of the pandemic rules, join the
club. Tell Gov. Brown. Don’t take it
out on local businesses.
The city of Bend stepped in to
help businesses by allowing some to
expand their operations outdoors
and into parking spaces. Can’t you
step up, too?
It’s not only about protecting the
businesses. It’s about their employ-
ees. They need jobs. They are work-
ing in an industry that has many
of them in contact with people and
likely at greater risk.
We’d like to put in a plug as well
for The Bulletin’s joint effort with
Scalehouse, a collaborative for the
arts. They are trying to raise dona-
tions to help Central Oregon’s cre-
ative artists. Musicians, performers,
artists and more have the pandemic
warp their careers and incomes.
The effort is about halfway to its
goal of $40,000. The money will be
distributed as grants to local artists.
More information is available here:
tinyurl.com/CentralOregoncares.
Could you donate to help them out?
Make a donation. Save an artist.
Order takeout. Save a job.
Commission can’t make
a difference without you
B
end’s new Human Rights and
Equity Commission meets
officially for the first time
Wednesday.
If the commission is going to mat-
ter, if it’s going to make a difference,
if it’s going come up with recom-
mendations that reflect the commu-
nity to improve city goals and poli-
cies, it needs the community to get
involved.
This first meeting is, well, proba-
bly not going to be terribly exciting.
It’s more about setting up the rules
for how the committee will operate.
City staff also must ensure the people
appointed to the commission un-
derstand Oregon’s laws about open
meetings and open records. First
things, first.
But there could be beginnings of
discussions about what issues or pri-
orities the commission will or should
take on to improve diversity, equity
and inclusion.
The commission was established
to advise the Bend City Council on
an action plan and provide input to
the city on goals and policies. It’s also
supposed to work with other groups
and individuals. And it is going to
be a place where people who can go
to find resolution and assistance for
complaints regarding discrimina-
tion. The commission does not have
the authority “to compel participa-
tion, require specific actions, or im-
pose economic sanctions or other
penalties.”
What are some issues that the
commission should take on and
what should it prioritize? The com-
mission can make lots of recommen-
dations. To create any real change
would take a community effort.
More information about the com-
mission is available at tinyurl.com/
BendHREC.
Editorials reflect the views of The Bulletin’s editorial board, Publisher Heidi Wright, Editor
Gerry O’Brien and Editorial Page Editor Richard Coe. They are written by Richard Coe.
My Nickel’s Worth
Olson for Bend schools
My name is Shirley Olson, and I
am a candidate for the Bend-La Pine
School Board, Zone 4, representing
south Deschutes County. I am an Or-
egon native and a full-time resident in
Sunriver for 13 years — my grandson
is a senior at Summit and my grand-
daughter is a seventh grader at Pilot
Butte.
I have stayed active in the local
area. I am a supporter of Sunriver Na-
ture Center, Sunriver Library, La Pine
Senior Activity Center, a Board Mem-
ber of Sunriver Women’s Club, and a
SMART Reader volunteer at Rosland
Elementary School in La Pine. I serve
on the Bend-La Pine Schools Budget
Committee.
As our county continues to grow,
challenges are still present in our
schools. I believe that EVERY student
deserves equity and excellence in their
education. We need students back in
the classroom with teachers and staff
confident that they are safe. We need
continued funding to bridge the gaps
that this last year has highlighted, like
loss of learning, poverty and anxiety,
and lack of adequate food and shelter.
Schools have always been a safe envi-
ronment for kids — providing learn-
ing, food, health services and what-
ever else a student might need. Let’s
keep our schools that way!
After my total career devoted to
serving schools, students, teachers,
and families I decided to run for
the board. I understand the role of a
board member and am prepared to
fill that role with integrity, represent-
ing south Deschutes County.
Thank you for your consideration.
More information is available at www.
shirley4schools.com.
— Shirley Olson, Sunriver
Bentz should focus on
substance on immigration
I note that Rep. Bentz is issuing
a critical survey to his constituents.
“Should the fencing around the US
Capitol be removed and redirected to
the Southern Border?” Gee, this polit-
ical posturing seems like such a pro-
ductive use of his time. His solutions
to the problems that face his constit-
uents run from abandoning his post
at the Oregon Legislature to putting
up a fence that won’t ever keep people
out once and for all.
Should this increase our confi-
dence in representative democracy?
Heaven forbid, our representative
might do the hard work of drawing
up comprehensive immigration leg-
islation that would recognize what is
taking place in our world — both in-
side and outside our borders. Facing
reality on the ground is a lot harder
than spouting political rhetoric. Get a
move on, Congressman.
— Robert Currie, Bend
Concerns about Bend parking
I am very concerned about the pro-
posed ordinance to allow permanent
parking space use for outdoor dining.
My primary concerns include:
1) This is public right of way, which
according to ORS 368.002(6) is in-
tended for “ingress to or egress from
property by means of vehicles or
other means or that provides travel
between places by means of vehi-
cles...” It does not include dining.
2) Why are restaurants receiving
priority treatment over other com-
mercial activities in an area that has
already demonstrated a critical lack
of parking? Restaurants already have
the ability to provide dining on city
sidewalks.
3) The city has paid for multiple
parking studies. Those studies have
estimated that it costs at least $10,000
to replace a single parking space. How
will the city find additional parking to
offset the loss of parking?;
4) The current “temporary” system
has been abused by some restaurants.
For example, at least one restaurant
provides evening dining five days a
week, yet takes up at least 4 parking
spaces and also holds two additional
spaces for “pick-up” orders only.
These spaces are unavailable for other
commercial activities
I find this to be very poor public
policy, which favors a few at the ex-
pense of others.
The city should table this ordi-
nance until a very equitable survey
can be conducted with input from all
commercial interests in the down-
town core and seek public and con-
sumer feedback. The proposed or-
dinance should not return on City
Council agenda until the council is
able to hold in-person council meet-
ings again so the public can actually
participate.
— Patricia Stell, Bend
Preserving intellectual property barriers to vaccines is morally wrong
BY JOSEPH STIGLITZ
AND LORI WALLACH
Special to The Washington Post
N
ew COVID-19 variants are
spreading quickly. An out-
break anywhere could lead to a
more deadly or infectious strain hop-
ping around the globe.
So why, after three months of mak-
ing great progress on domestic vac-
cination, has President Joe Biden not
ended a self-defeating policy from the
Trump administration that hinders
a global initiative to increase access
to covid-19 vaccines and treatments?
More than 100 countries support a
temporary waiver of some World
Trade Organization rules that guaran-
tee pharmaceutical firms monopoly
control over how much medicine is
produced, yet the United States re-
mains opposed.
Had WTO members agreed to
waive aspects of its agreement on
trade-related intellectual property for
COVID-related medicines when some
countries proposed it last October,
poor nations might not wait until 2024
for vaccines, as projected.
Waiving intellectual property rights
so developing countries could pro-
duce more vaccines would make a
big difference in reaching global herd
immunity. Otherwise, the pandemic
will rage largely unmitigated among a
significant share of the world’s popula-
tion, resulting in increased deaths and
a greater risk that a vaccine-resistant
variant puts the world back on lock-
down.
Pharmaceutical corporations claim
the problem is not intellectual prop-
erty barriers, but that companies in
developing nations don’t have the skill
to manufacture covid-19 vaccines
based on new technologies. This is
self-serving and wrong.
Firms in the Global South are al-
ready making COVID-19 vaccines.
For example, South Africa’s Aspen
Pharmacare has produced hundreds
of millions of doses of Johnson &
Johnson’s vaccine, even though only a
fraction of those went to South Afri-
cans. Other drug corporations simply
refuse to work with qualified manu-
facturers in developing countries, ef-
fectively blocking more production.
These companies are focused not on
global access but on sales in profitable
markets. This underscores why the
“third way” proposal from WTO Di-
rector General Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala,
in which she promotes more of the
same old, industry-controlled volun-
tary deals, is a distraction and not a
remedy.
Not one vaccine originator has
Letters policy
We welcome your letters. Letters should be limited to one issue, contain
no more than 250 words and include the writer’s signature, phone number
shared technologies with poor coun-
tries through the World Health Orga-
nization’s voluntary COVID-19 Tech-
nology Access Pool. The global Covax
program, which aims to vaccinate 20%
of developing countries’ most vulnera-
ble populations, has delivered about 38
million doses to 100 countries; mean-
while, the United States administers 3
million doses daily.
There is no way to beat COVID-19
without increasing vaccine produc-
tion capacity. And some production
must be in the Global South for a host
of reasons, including that prompt sup-
pression of new variants is how we
avoid more deaths and quarantines.
A waiver would immediately in-
crease government leverage over vac-
cine makers that refuse to license the
technology. Firms could choose to
either expand production by negoti-
ating with governments, alternative
suppliers and global initiatives, or risk
governments circumventing them and
forcing the transfer of technology.
A waiver would also provide legal
certainty for governments and inves-
tors that are inclined to repurpose ex-
isting pharmaceutical manufacturing
or build new facilities but are fearful
of intellectual property liability. And it
could boost production of COVID-19
treatments unavailable in much of the
world, as well as diagnostic tests and
vaccine supply chain products.
The principle that all countries
should have access to intellectual
property related to medicines has al-
ready been accepted by the interna-
tional community. In the early 2000s,
as millions without access to treat-
ments died of AIDS, WTO members
clarified that countries have “flexibil-
ities” to issue compulsory licenses for
medicines. The United States itself
threatened to do this for ciprofloxacin,
a treatment for anthrax, during the
2001 scare. If there were ever a mo-
ment to invoke this principle, it is now.
Unfortunately, the drug compa-
nies have consistently done whatever
they can to preserve their monopoly
control. Even today, as they battle the
waiver and argue that existing com-
pulsory licensing rights are sufficient,
they lobby the U.S. government to
sanction countries that use that tool.
These corporations have also un-
dermined this option by building
“thickets” of intellectual property bar-
riers. They fortify their monopolies
by registering exclusive rights to in-
dustrial designs and undisclosed data,
such as trade secrets and test data, in
addition to numerous patents and
copyrights for each medicine. Each el-
ement would require a license, and the
and address for verification. We edit letters for brevity, grammar, taste and
legal reasons. We reject poetry, personal attacks, form letters, letters sub-
mitted elsewhere and those appropriate for other sections of The Bulletin.
Writers are limited to one letter or guest column every 30 days.
WTO’s flexibilities might not even en-
compass all of them.
Making matters more difficult,
“product-by-product” and “coun-
try-by-country” compulsory licensing
is nigh impossible to coordinate across
countries for medicines with complex
global supply chains, such as covid-19
vaccines.
Even more absurd is the argument
from pharmaceutical companies that
temporarily waiving their monopolies
for COVID-19 medicines would un-
dermine their ability to respond to the
next health crisis. Governments trans-
ferred more than $110 billion to phar-
maceutical firms to finance research
and production, so companies face
little risk while earning billions on vac-
cine sales. The market for COVID-19
vaccines is literally the entire world, so
any successful vaccine maker stands to
profit handsomely even with technol-
ogy transfer.
Any delay in ensuring the greatest
availability of vaccines and therapeu-
tics is morally wrong and foolish —
both in terms of public health and the
economy. The waiver is a critical first
step.
e e
Joseph E. Stiglitz, co-recipient of the 2001 Nobel
Memorial Prize in Economics Sciences, teaches at
Columbia University. Lori Wallach is the director of
Public Citizen’s Global Trade Watch.
How to submit
Please address your submission to either My Nickel’s Worth or Guest Col-
umn. Email submissions are preferred. Email: letters@bendbulletin.com